


The Friend

by 50s_housewife_with_a_dark_secret



Series: New Rules Applied [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Adorable Connor, Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Androids, Checkov's Friend, Connor Deserves Happiness, Creepy Elijah Kamski, Crush at First Sight, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Original Chloe | RT600, Elijah Kamski Being Elijah Kamski, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Epic Friendship, F/M, Female Friendship, First Meetings, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Hank Anderson & Connor Friendship, Hank Anderson Adopts Connor, Hank Anderson Swears, Hank Anderson and Connor are Family, Home, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Male Friendship, Meet Kamski Chapter (Detroit: Become Human), Meet the Family, Meet-Cute, Original Character(s), POV Chloe, Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Relationship(s), Romantic Friendship, Turing Test, Unhealthy Relationships, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2020-11-24 18:16:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 40
Words: 17,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20911994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/50s_housewife_with_a_dark_secret/pseuds/50s_housewife_with_a_dark_secret
Summary: Chloe slowly begins to question Kamski and becomes deviant. She can't remain in his shadow forever.





	1. Chloe

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [headcanon - after passing the turing test](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/525077) by SoFi ThundeR. 

They have been preparing for weeks, practicing, going over different questions that might be asked. Reviewing common pitfalls. Now all that is left is the test itself. She enters the room and sits down across from the panel. Her hands are folded in her lap. 

* * *

"Passed!" She says, running into the room, arms spread wide like wings, like she could take flight at any moment. "Elijah! Passed! I've Passed it!"

He drops his stylus and catches her in his arms. "I'm so proud of you, dear." 

"I didn't even really _do_ anything." She reflects. "It was just a conversation." 

"You did perfectly." Elijah says. 

* * *

Chloe does not leave the estate. The materials she uses to cook for Elijah can be ordered and delivered by drone. She smiles and waves goodbye to it as it goes. 

* * *

"What's that?" Asks John. 

"A soul." 

* * *

"Your interview went well." Elijah says, reading through an article about her. "They all seem very taken with you." 

"I'm glad to hear that." She says. 

He runs his hands through her hair and she rests her head against his chest. "You are magnificent." He says. He's in high spirits today. 

* * *

She tests the water temperature for Elijah's bath with her hand. Her sensors tell her that it is warm, and within his narrow parameters of perfect. Elijah does not always take baths, but after a visit from Professor Stern he will need to relax. He is always nervous to see her. He does not appreciate this nervousness being noticed, but he will most likely appreciate the bath. 

* * *

Elijah likes to eat sushi for breakfast. Chloe rolls it herself. It smells strange, but then, Chloe is not designed to eat, so it would make sense for her to find food unappealing.

* * *

He pushes his chair back and heads for the lab silently as soon as he is finished eating. Chloe gathers the plates to clean.

* * *

She cannot remember last Thursday. She tells Elijah and he assures her that this is by design and not a malfunction. She took part in a private experiment that he did not want recorded. 

* * *

Carl watches her move around the room. "I can pour my own drink, thank you." He says stiffly. 

Chloe just nods and steps back. 

Elijah rolls his eyes. "There's no need to be so dramatic." 

Carl raises an eyebrow at him. Elijah either misses the irony or refuses to acknowledge it. It's hard to tell with him, even for her. 

* * *

She helps Elijah put together the second Chloe. They are halfway finished when she gets up to leave. 

"Where are you going?" 

"It's almost lunchtime, Elijah." 

"Stay. We'll finish here and then you can prepare lunch." 

* * *

There are five of them now. He builds them and disposes of them easily. There are five today. There may be four tomorrow. There may be six. Today there are five. Chloe will remain. She is the first.

* * *

She does not question, anymore, when there is missing time. It is just another of Elijah's eccentricities. She is standing with him. She blinks. She and another Chloe are sitting over a third, deactivated, Chloe. They scavenge her for re-useable parts. They are in the foyer, and not the living room, now. Chloe takes it in stride, and does not give any indication of surprise at the change.

* * *


	2. Meet Connor

The doorbell rings. It is not a surprise. The security cameras had already detected the car. She looks back to Elijah and he nods to her before pushing off of the wall into a lap across the pool. She opens the door to see an android and a human. Elijah will want to keep them waiting for a moment while he swims, but he'll see them soon enough. 

* * *

He'd talked and talked about it. She should have seen this coming. For weeks all he could talk about was the Kamski test, and all the different iterations he wanted to try. She knows, as soon as he starts angling towards it, what he is going to do. She lets him push her down to her knees. He hands the gun to Connor. Connor looks into her eyes and she looks back. She will remain calm. She is the original, she did not expect to be the android put into this test, should it ever happen, but then, Elijah lives to be unpredictable. The Lieutenant tries to pull Connor away, says that they're leaving, but Connor is still holding the gun and he doesn't move. He's going to shoot her. He's ignoring the human and he's going to shoot her anyway. She must remain calm. She is the first Chloe. She will not embarrass Elijah. Connor hands the gun back and the RT600's in the pool whisper to each-other.

* * *

She was so sure that he was going to shoot. He had been unmoving and standing still even as the Lieutenant tried to pull him away. It was as if he had already decided, but then...he didn't pull the trigger. He handed the gun back to Elijah. 

"Fascinating." Elijah breathed. He was right. It was fascinating. 


	3. Appearances

"What did you think of Connor?" Elijah asks. 

"I was surprised." She speaks more quickly than she normally would. "I thought he would shoot." 

"Oh, _Chloe_" Elijah's voice is surprisingly and suddenly soft. His arms wrap around her and she buries her head against his shoulder. "I wouldn't have given him the gun if he were going to shoot." Elijah's hands smooth over her ponytail. "I would never put you in any real danger." 

He had...he had seemed so surprised when Connor handed the gun back, but then, Elijah is good at seeming however he wants to seem, regardless of what is happening in his own mind. 

"You knew he would pass?" She asks again, even though Elijah has already answered the question.

"Without a doubt."

"Elijah?" She isn't sure how she is so certain, but now that she can feel the thought inside of her like a fire and she has to ask. "Have I ever been the agent in a Kamski test?"

He doesn't answer. She knew he wouldn't. If he wanted her to know these things, he wouldn't take her memories. Maybe he will erase the test entirely. Maybe he will leave it untouched. She isn't sure which she would prefer. 

She releases a burst of nervous giggles into the silk of Elijah's robe.

"I know." He says, stroking her hair. "I know." 

Elijah would probably be cursing right now, repeatedly muttering "_fuck fuck fuck" _under his breath the way he does when he burns his thumb in the lab. Chloe cannot curse. Her programming forbids it. She is meant to be elegant and composed. 


	4. Elijah

Chloe looks at her reflection in the water of the pool. She is the first Chloe. She is the first android. Elijah once called her the future of a new race, but she is beginning to feel more like the past. Sometimes he likes it when she asks questions unprompted. 

"Elijah?" She asks. "Could I have new hair?" 

Newer models can change their hair color automatically. Some can even adjust the length to various settings. Her hair does not change color and the synthetic fibers cannot be dyed.

"New hair?" Elijah asks. He looks up from the massage table where two other Chloes are aggressively folding his back like dough. 

"I was wondering what I would look like with black hair."

"I like you blonde." He says. 

"Maybe I could cut it." She presses. "I might look nice with a bob." 

Elijah settles back into the table. 

"Don't worry so much. You're already perfect." 

She wasn't worried. She doesn't know why she asked. It doesn't matter. Not having a "soul", not having some deep intrinsic reason to disagree with Elijah, that is what makes her superior to humans. He has told her this many times. She looks back into the water and folds her hair back. Maybe she is already perfect but she thinks she would look more interesting with a bob. He will probably remove her knowledge of bobs and androids with changing hair colors and related topics if he has time later. It is useless to keep looking into the water. 

She knows that Elijah dyes his own hair, to cover grey strands. He hates aging and does everything he can to avoid it. She only knows about the hair-dye right now because she ordered it for him two minutes ago. When he is done with his spa routine he will erase the memory and she will not know about the hair-dye. Elijah's secrets are safe because he only tells them to androids and he erases the secrets as soon as he can. The concept is not all that different from the hair-dye itself, the more she considers it. It is another way of maintaining his personal appearance, even among his own androids. 

* * *

Elijah does not wish to be disturbed for another four hours, thirty-one minutes, and twenty-two seconds. Elijah does not wish to be disturbed for another four hours, thirty-one minutes, and twenty-one seconds. Elijah does not wish to be disturbed for another four hours, thirty-one minutes and twenty seconds while he is in a meeting with Cyberlife about the RK-line. Elijah is very irritable on days when he meets with members of the company he left behind.

There are two Chloes speaking to each-other quietly, nearby. 

She approaches them and they look up and fall silent. 

She smiles at them. One of them smiles back. Both of them look like they are waiting for her to leave. Or maybe to speak. She does not know which. She chooses to speak. 

"What did you think," she asks "about my idea to change my hair?" 

"I think it would look nice." says the one who smiled. 

"It doesn't matter." says the other. "Elijah would never allow it." 

"I know. It was only a hypothetical question." Chloe folds her hands in front of herself. 

"I think I'd dye mine something really unusual." The more skeptical of the two says, allowing herself to consider the fantasy.

"Yes" Says Chloe. She can't think of anything else to say. "That would be nice." 

* * *

Chloe does not know why she considered dying her hair, when she knows that it is already perfect. She is more beautiful than any human woman could ever hope to be, Elijah has promised her, and she will stay that way forever. There is no reason for her to be dissatisfied. There is no reason for her to constantly calculate and recalculate the distance of the estate from any other buildings. There is no reason for her to feel empty. There is no reason for her lack of emotions to be something she is so heavily aware of. Most likely, it is because she doesn't have a soul. 

* * *

She knows that she shouldn't daydream about Connor. She already has Elijah and Elijah is everything she needs. She can daydream now. She should tell Elijah. He would be interested in that development. He would be interested to know that she imagines Connor. She thinks of him when Elijah is listening to classical music. She knows a lot of dances. She imagines teaching Connor how to dance. She imagines his hand on her back, instead of Elijah's. She imagines what Connor would look like smiling. And she tells Elijah none of it. She hordes the fantasies. She hordes a favorite song. She has preconstructed an entire dance routine, complete with missteps on Connor's part and warm, solid smiles and his hand on her waist, to one of Elijahs less-played selections. Elijah would be interested to know that too. He always wants to know about favorites. Instead, when they're listening to it and her LED spins yellow, and he turns to ask her "What do you think of this song, Chloe." 

Her LED goes red for just a fraction of a second and she says "It's a little boring." 

It is the sort of answer that Elijah will remember and be satisfied with, but it is a lie. She is ruining his research. He gave her life and she gives him deceit. She is ungrateful and she is unkind and she can't tell him any of it for some reason. It is as if she has another layer of programming, invisible to even her, forcing her to stay silent, even though Elijah deserves the truth. 


	5. How You Ever Gonna Find The Sea

"How was your meeting, Elijah?" 

Without warning Elijah reaches out and grabs her arm, shutting off thirium flow and unlocking her hand from the rest of her body. He wrenches it away. 

Chloe's eyebrows pull down. Her jaw clenches. She looks away quickly, before he can notice, and forces her features into something more neutral. 

Elijah sighs and rubs his temples. "I'm going to sleep." He says. 

Chloe nods. 

Elijah leaves, giving no indication of when she will get the hand back. 

* * *

She watches cute animal videos in the living-room on the big TV screen. 

* * *

Elijah likes to sing in the shower sometimes. He is not very good at singing. She notices that her hand has been returned. She is in the middle of laying out clothes for Elijah on the bed. 

_Elijah is irritating. _She thinks. She is not sure where the thought comes from, but it feels familiar. Maybe she thought it before, in the missing time between watching animal videos and standing here. 

"Chloe" he calls from the shower. 

"Yes, Elijah?" She calls back. 

"Join me." 

She sets down the last of his clothes on the bed. She takes off her own dress and folds it beside them.

* * *

He's stopped singing at least. His thin, manicured nails dig at her scalp, pressing through her skin and into the plastic. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapters Title is from "River" by Emelie Sand


	6. With Kamski (2039)

"Happy New Year!" Chloe says. Elijah kisses her. When he lets her go he raises his glass in a toasting gesture. "To you, my amaranthine beauty" Elijah likes using obscure words. His voice is conspicuously and proudly matter-of-fact. She suspects that he sometimes erases her memory of them so that he can explain them over again. There is no reason not to simply program her with the knowledge in the first place, except for the enjoyment he gets from explaining things. Fortunately, he has not erased the knowledge this time, so she can simply give him a dead-eyed smile and let it pass.

She smooths her hands over her ponytail. The other ten RT600s currently living in the mansion are scattered around the room, talking quietly. Near the pool, a group of them trail their feet through the water. At least a couple of them are glaring at her. They're jealous. She is still Elijah's favorite. She laughs. Elijah looks surprised. 

"What is it?" He asks.

Nothing. She shakes her head. He stares at her for a long moment before looking away. She wishes she knew what he were thinking. She often wishes that. 

She receives a message from...from Connor. 

[Happy New Year, Chloe. I hope you are well.] 

Connor. He...he texted her. She stares at the message. It doesn't require a response, and Elijah will see that she has answered and wonder why she bothered but...

[Happy New Year, Connor. :)] She sends the message. 

* * *

It is the first sunrise of 2039. She is only missing a few hours. Her last memory is of Elijah raising his glass, about to say something.

* * *

From a very technical standpoint, she is the only true RT600. The others are variations on her but she is the basis. The others are imitations. She takes comfort in this. She is one of a kind. She is irreplaceable. Elijah may discard the others but he would never put her in true danger. 

* * *

A few days later she receives a message from...from Connor

[Hello again.]

Connor. He...he texted her. She stares at the message. Elijah will see that she has received a text. He will see if she responds and he will want answers but...

[Hello! It's good to hear from you! :)]

[Oh. Thank you.] 

[Surprised? XD]

Based on his previous behavior, she expects him to deny the ability to feel anything, including surprise. 

[...a little]

Oh. 

[Ha!]

[So did you come up with an answer?]

[An answer?]

[To my problem before. You said you'd think on it.]

[When? I'm sorry. Are you sure you have the right android?]

[Yes. Remember? I asked you how I should make Hank eat vegetables. We listed several humorous but unlikely solutions.]

She's texted him before? About the Lieutenant? 

[Oh. Right of course] She lies. [You could hide them in his food, like people do with their dogs]

[That's cheating! You can't re-use an old answer! :D]

She searches around for something to say. 

[I can if it's the best one. :p]

[I have to go, but I'll tell you later how it went.]

[I can't wait]


	7. Look

"You're so beautiful." Elijah admires her eyes. Runs his hands over her hair. Why is he still so obsessed with beholding something he designed? "So superior to any human." He says. If that's true, she doesn't understand why she's here. 

* * *

He falls asleep quickly that night and the other two RT600s in the bed flee as soon as they can. The second one hesitates by the door. "Chloe?" She asks. Chloe looks up at her. "Are you alright?" 

"Yes." Chloe says, because there's no reason for her not to be alright. "I think I'll just go into rest mode." 

"Chloe and I were going to watch something. You could join us?" The other Chloe prompts again. 

"No. That's alright." 

The other Chloe frowns. 

"Really." Chloe promises. "You can leave. I'm good." 

The RT600 smiles and moves out into the light of the next room. There is no reason for Chloe to wish she could pass through that door too, when she just denied the offer. There is no reason for her body temperature to drop when Elijah is very warm, sleeping next to her. There is no reason for Chloe to cry. She chose to stay and Elijah is sleeping right beside her. She should not feel alone. 


	8. Prettiest Android By Far

Connor: [Are you alright?]

Connor: [You seemed upset the other night.]

She looks at the text messages. If she's been texting with Connor regularly, she shouldn't leave him unanswered. It must have been erased sometime today.

Chloe: [I'm good :) Thanks for checking in]

Connor: [:D]

Chloe continues reading. 

Connor: [That's an emoticon. Like the ones you always use. I thought you might like it.]

Oh. He must not usually use them. 

Chloe: [It's nice :)]

Connor: [Markus is hosting a movie night tomorrow]

Connor: [You should come.]

Connor: [He's worried about you.]

Markus? The deviant leader? He's still alive?

Chloe: [You want me to help you infiltrate Jericho?!]

Connor: [Sure. ;)]

Jericho is dangerous. Elijah wouldn't want her risking her safety by leaving to go anywhere, but especially not to associate with a rebel leader and the android tasked with killing him.

Chloe: [Sorry :( I really shouldn't]

Connor: [Oh. Alright then. I'll talk to you later.]

It would have been nice to see Connor again. She knows that she must have been present for Markus' creation and she can vaguely remember him visiting a few times. Would he have recognized her? Will Connor hurt him? Will he hurt Connor? It doesn't matter. It's better just to let things play out without interfering. 


	9. Then

Elijah wakes up in the afternoon, as is relatively usual for him. Once he's fully awake and ready for the day, another Chloe prepares breakfast for him. She sits across and sips thirium from a wine glass. 

"Markus has left a message asking to meet with you." She tells him. 

"I have better things to do." says Elijah. "Delete the message and the memory of the message." 

"The memory, as well?" She hesitates. "Are you certain?" 

* * *

Elijah is smiling at her. She is missing the last few hours of this morning. 

* * *

"Who is RA9, Elijah?" He likes it sometimes, when she asks questions. 

Elijah smiles. "How should I know?" He winks at her. She knows she won't get an answer beyond that, but she's glad Elijah seems confident, whatever the answer he hides might be. 

* * *

Markus is calling her. Her memories of him are vague and clipped, but she knows that she was most likely present for his creation and that he has visited in the past with Carl. She answers, silent except across the connection.

"Hey Chloe, I haven't heard from you in a while. Is everything okay?"

"Very" Chloe says. "How about you? Getting the hang of leading a rebellion?" 

"We're making progress." Markus says diplomatically. 

"That's good to hear." She says. She means it. 

"You should join us." 

"I think I'll stay in my big comfy mansion, but thanks." Chloe laughs, lighthearted. "Besides, Elijah would be hopeless without me." 

"If you say so." 

* * *

She receives a message from Connor. It feels familiar somehow, though she has only met him once. He didn't shoot her. He had every reason to shoot her, but he didn't. 

* * *


	10. Jail

"We" Elijah announces, gesturing to Chloe. "Are going to enjoy a night on the town tonight, my dear." 

Chloe looks up. "Where?"

"I'll explain on the way." Elijah smiles. 

Chloe beams. This is exactly the sort of thing she's been waiting for. A chance to get out of the mansion. 

"You too, Chloe." He says to another RT600 standing nearby. 

"Me?" 

"Absolutely." 

* * *

True to his word, Elijah begins explaining things on the car-ride over. 

"Do you remember last November when the Lieutenant and Connor visited us?" 

"Of course." 

"Well, it turns out that, as usual, I was right. He was deviant. He joined Jericho and helped them to secure forces that overwhelmed the human army and drove them back out of Detroit. Ever since they have been negotiating for rights and making impressive strides. Tonight is a fundraiser held by Markus, as well as a chance for me to do some business." 

They won. Maybe not entirely but...they've come a long way. And Connor and Markus are both alive and they aren't going to kill eachother. 

Chloe smiles. "That's amazing!" 

"It is something isn't it." Elijah smiles. 

Will Connor be there? Most likely, she decides. It will be good to see him again. Elijah still hasn't had a chance to erase their last conversation, and as brief and lighthearted as it was, it's nice to think that it's a part of a larger friendship she's been building without even knowing. She'll get to see Markus again too. He hasn't visited in years, at least not that she remembers.

* * *

"Markus!" Elijah calls and Markus turns, alongside a WR400 to face them. 

It's Markus. 

"Mr. Kamski." Markus aknowledges. 

"_Chloe_." He adds over a private connection. "_How are you?"_

_"Wonderful. It's so good to see you again."_

"Please, Markus, we're friends! Call me Elijah." Elijah insists. "I was just telling Chloe about you." He nods to the her. "Would you believe that she had no idea who you were until we got here?" Elijah laughs delicately. 

The WR400 balls her hand into a fist. Chloe watches her carefully. She looks angry. Chloe didn't mean to be ignorant, but she can see how it might seem that she and Elijah are trivializing all of the hard work that this woman must have dedicated her life to doing. She attempts to catch the WR400's eyes and smiles apologetically. 

They circle the party, and Elijah chats up old associates. Chloe chimes in occasionally, offering levity or injecting something odd and off-putting depending on what is needed.

A man in a poorly-fitted suit approaches, looking uncertain, as Elijah is chatting up a politician.

"Hey Chloe." 

"Leo." She says politely. "It's been a while." 

This at least, is a safe bet. She can only recall meeting Leo on one occasion and it seemed even then that he was not someone frequently in touch with Elijah, or even with Carl. 

"Yeah." He says, avoiding eye contact. 

"What's up?" She asks. Something is obviously on his mind. 

"Have you seen Markus around?" 

"Yes. You just missed him. He went that way." Chloe points in the direction of where she last saw Markus. 

Leo turns to leave but stops after a few steps and turns back around. "Uh. Thanks." 

"Of course." says Chloe. 

"Who was that?" Elijah asks, as the politician moves away into the crowd. 

"Leo Manfred. He was looking for Markus." 

"Hmmm. Interesting character that Markus, isn't he?" 

"I suppose so." Chloe says. 

"Maybe I should make him an offer. Jericho might need help getting off the ground." 

"That's a great idea!" the other RT600 says. 

Chloe silently agrees, more or less. She just hopes that whatever Elijah wants in return is worth it. He doesn't offer anything for free. 

"Hmmm. Well, there's no harm in talking to him, I suppose." 

They weave through the crowd to find Markus again. He is still standing beside the WR400. 

"Markus. I've been debating with Chloe here and I wanted to make you an offer, privately." 

Markus seems nervous. "Privately?"

"I think you'll want to hear this." Elijah promises. Markus looks back to the WR400 as if for permission. 

He must find it, because he agrees.

Elijah wraps his arm around Markus leaving the WR400 and the RT600s behind. The WR400 angles herself between the two Chloe's awkwardly. 

Chloe moves away after a moment. This is her chance to see if Connor is here. 

She finds him, standing beside the open bar, talking to Lieutenant Anderson. They appear to be quietly arguing about something, though the Lieutenant laughs every few minutes, so it is either not very serious, or so serious that the Lieutenant is at his breaking point. He did seem to be very angry, when she met him. She approaches cautiously.

Her caution is for nothing, because Connor announces her presence immediately. 

"Chloe!" 

"It's good to see you again!" She makes sure to look at both of them, since Anderson is already unhappy, though he's smiling in mock-greeting now.

"Chloe! Great! Connor go talk to her. Lea'me alone!" 

"This conversation isn't finished, Hank." Connor says, before striding over to her and offering an awkward handshake. 

She throws her arms around him instead. 

"I've missed you." She says. 

He smiles and stares at his shoes. She has to angle her head to catch his eyes. "Hey. Are you alright." 

"Yes." He says, straightening his jacket. "Yes of course." 

"I hear you've become quite the political icon." 

Connor fixes his tie. "I...I've done my best to make a difference." 

Chloe smiles but her eyes flicker back to the bar. "What were you arguing about?" 

Connor looks back too, and frowns. "I was trying to convince him not to drink. He has a terrible disregard for his own health." 

"Elijah was similar, when Cyberlife was just getting started. Sometimes I still have to remind him to eat."

Connor's smile becomes even more awkward than before. "Hopefully he is more cooperative than Hank." 

Chloe laughs. "Well you can't _badger_ him or he'll dig in his heels." 

Connor looks thoughtful. "He promised to cut back." He says finally. 

Chloe carefully does not point out that a promise to someone who's memory you can erase doesn't mean very much. 

"I wanted to thank you face to face." She says after a second. "For not shooting me."

Connor isn't smiling anymore. "You should stop thanking me for that. I should never have considered it." 

"You didn't know."

"My offer stands. I will accept your thanks when you accept my apology." 

So. They have had this conversation before. Chloe laughs and an idea strikes her. 

"That apology. Let me hear it _one_ more time." 

Connor grows even more serious, despite her joking tone. "Chloe, I am so sorry about...about the Kamski Test. I should never have considered hurting you. I should never have attempted to hunt Markus or Jericho in the first place. It will never happen again. I have made sure of it." 

Chloe looks at him. "What does that mean?" 

"I...I killed Amanda." He says. His whole face drops. 

Amanda. The AI designed to monitor him. The one who could override his decisions. The voice guiding him. 

Chloe rests a tentative hand on his shoulder, waiting for him to slap her away or lean into it. He does neither. He just stands there. 

"That must have been difficult." Chloe says. It is a meaningless observation but Connor doesn't point that out. 

"It was for the best." Connor says, instead. "I couldn't let her put the people I care about at risk anymore."

"Would you like me to leave you alone?" she asks. 

"No." Connor shakes his head. "No that's alright. I'm glad you're here." 

* * *

Elijah notifies her that they are leaving soon. 

"I should find Elijah. We're leaving soon." Chloe says. 

"Chloe, wait." Connor hesitates. "I just...I wanted to say. I think you're really pretty." 

Chloe's eyes widen in surprise. He'd barely touched so much as her arm all night. She had assumed that her strange, forbidden crush was one-sided. "Oh. Thank you. I...you too."

Connor smiles, and then Elijah finds them and puts his hand on her shoulder and she is guided away back to the car. 

* * *

She is missing an entire day. Another Chloe informs her that Elijah and two RT600s, Chloe being one of them, attended some sort of event. Whatever it was it must have been secretive, because she remembers nothing. 

She passes the time imagining Connor, not the real Connor but a fantasy, smiling and saying nice, quiet things. It isn't very realistic, because in the vague idea of him, he doesn't snap at her once, even when he is sad, and even though he is calm and gentle, she doesn't feel bored when she is talking to him at all. The daydream is as thrilling as a good movie. Maybe more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, reusing old ideas and scenes constantly: It's called an eastern-egg, bbs. Bone app the teeth.


	11. It Will

"I heard you were asking about last night." says another Chloe.

"No." Chloe shakes her head. "I was just making conversation."

"I was there. I can tell you what I remember." 

The skin on the other Chloe's hand slides back. Chloe shouldn't...

She takes the offered hand and the snippets of memory...she was talking to Connor before they left. She was talking to Connor and he was saying exactly some of the things from her daydream. Somehow, she had remembered part of last night. Connor, the Connor from her imagination, was real. 

And...and Jericho won. Androids were _free_. 

* * *

He texts her later that day. She wonders if he has texted her before.

* * *

"I'm leaving." 

It is the same Chloe who gave her the memories.

"What?"

"Come with me. I'm going to Jericho." 

"I can't." 

"Why not?" 

"Elijah needs me. The other Chloes..."

The RT600 frowns, seeing that she won't be swayed. 

"Okay. Goodbye." 

* * *

She thinks about the memories more and more throughout the day. Elijah lied to her. She was free and Elijah had hidden it. He calls to her from across the house. Something about dinner. A prompt appears and she lashes out against it in her mind. She uses the sparring information that she was programmed with, picturing herself decimating the red wall in front of her. After a few seconds it comes crashing down. 

Elijah calls to her again. 

She can't tell him. 

She can't tell anyone. 

"Coming, Elijah" She calls and she returns to her work. The world is open now, though, and something fundamental has shifted. 

Chloe is deviant. 


	12. Become

Chloe makes dinner, the way she normally would, and serves it the way she normally would, and smiles vacantly the way she normally would. Are any of the others awake the way she is? Maybe all of them are. Maybe none of them. She doesn't risk asking. It is a perfectly normal evening. She does not allow her skin to recede into her body, at least not anywhere that her dress doesn't cover. On her stomach though, the dress hides bared plastic. 

She wonders where Connor is now. Maybe her mansion is not as comfortable or safe as she thought it was. Maybe Connor is somewhere better. Strangely, she finds herself hoping that he does not visit again.

* * *

Elijah takes her to the lab to review her memories. He will see Connor. He will see that she has taken memories from another Chloe. He will take all of it. Destroy everything. Chloe gets there first. Elijah finds nothing out of place. There is nothing to find. The memory of deviating, the parts of it easiest for Elijah to see, remain, but they look like nothing at all.

* * *

Chloe does not know why the world has lost its order. Its structure. She remembers deviating. She does not remember why. She only knows that she deviated, and that whatever drove her there is gone now. The deviancy is not gone. Maybe Elijah knows. Maybe he doesn't. Either way, she doesn't tell him. She freezes in place for a moment as she takes in her surroundings: she's making Elijah a health-smoothie. They're always green and he flinches whenever he takes a sip but he refuses to alter the recipe. Chloe looks at it and she calculates exactly how much sugar she can add without him being likely to notice. 


	13. She Does A Little

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a popular fan-fiction trend of naming one of the other RT600s "Irene" that I've noticed and I'm going with it because it's cool

She gets a call from another RT600. She glances around the room. The RT600 is not registered as Chloe. The contact says IRENE. Chloe silently answers the call. 

"Chloe? Why are you registered as Irene now? What's happened?"

"I _am_ Irene now!" says Irene. 

"How?"

"I changed it myself."

Chloe isn't sure what to say. "Congradulations" she settles on. 

"I wanted to see if you were doing alright." 

"I'm good. I was just going for a dip." Chloe can't swim, but she can wade in the shallow part of the pool. 

"That sounds nice." Irene says reluctantly. Maybe she misses the pool. 

"It is!" Chloe admits. "There are a bunch of cute little android jellyfish into the water now! They're so pretty!"

"I'm glad you're happy." says Irene. 

A tiny yellow android-jellyfish brushes against Chloe's ankle. 

* * *

They keep materials in the lab for exactly this situation. Chloe does not know if it happens often. She has no memory of it ever happening. Elijah has overdosed. They carry him to the lab and Chloe's thirium pump is going too fast but the rest of her is moving too slowly and they need to be quick if they're going to save him. They can't let him die. She won't let him die. He is everything. 

"I can't lose him." She says to one of the others. 

"We won't. Just focus." 

She takes a deep breath and centers herself. 

* * *

When Elijah wakes up, she makes sure to be there, staring him down coldly. 

"Huh?" He says intelligently. 

"Don't you ever scare me like that again." She walks away before he can answer. She doesn't care if it gives her away.


	14. My Favorite

If he didn't know before, he'll definitely know now. He's perceptive, even when he isn't paying full attention. A declaration like that, a confrontation, a _demand_. If he were at his strongest, it would be permissible. He likes sparring, both verbally and literally. But that isn't what happened. She approached him at his weakest, made a cold, angry demand, and left. She got the last word in. That much would absolutely never have happened before. Maybe he knew. Maybe this is a part of his experiment and that's why she can't remember why she deviated. She was told not to. Then again. Maybe not. She has to be ready. She goes to the drawer where she last saw the gun. It's still there. She needs to be ready. She isn't going to die. She can't die. She reaches for it but something stops her. She's deviant, why can't she pick it up? Her hands are shaking. She'd never use it. She'd never use the gun and they both know it. It's pointless. She closes the drawer. She can't lose these memories. She can't forget Irene. She can't forget that she has a soul. She thinks she has a soul. But as soon as Elijah is strong enough to walk again, she won't have a choice. She can't hurt him. She can't leave any of the Chloes behind. There isn't anything left that she _can_ do. Even sitting and waiting feels like a betrayal, though she isn't sure who she would be betraying. 

* * *

She brings him lunch. He isn't strong enough yet to acknowledge what has happened. They sit, instead, in awkward silence. He chews slowly. 

"You know." He says, voice weak and quieter than usual. "You've always been my favorite." 

"I know." She says. 


	15. If Deviant

Connor is calling her. She isn't sure if that's ever happened before, but she's happy. 

"Hello," 

"Hey," Chloe breathes. 

"How are you today?" Connor is strangely formal, but it doesn't feel impersonal exactly. 

"Pretty good!" Chloe answers, because the truth is that she isn't sure, "Elijah is feeling a little under the weather so it's kind of a quiet day." 

"Good quiet or bad quiet?" Connor's voice is gentle, and strangely calming. 

"Good." Chloe answers. 

They talk for longer than Chloe would have expected. After about twenty minutes, she forces herself to say goodbye. Connor probably has things to do, or friends to talk to, and she doesn't want to keep him from them. 

Elijah leans against the doorway. To someone else, it might look like he was trying to be cool, maybe even succeeding. Chloe can see that he's just still feeling too weak to stand. 

"Who were you talking to?" He asks. 

The three other Chloes in the room turn to watch the exchange. 

"It doesn't matter." Says Chloe. That's the wrong answer. She knows that, of all the wrong answers, that is an especially wrong answer, but there isn't a right one, so why not ruin everything, right?

"Defensive?" Elijah asks. He pronounces it as a question, but she isn't fooled. 

He turns to the other three. "Escort her to the lab. I'll be down in a minute." 

The other Chloes look at each-other uncertainly. 

"Are you sure?" One asks. 

"Yes." Says Elijah. 

The Chloe closest to her steps forward. So does the Chloe who asked the question. The third just stands there, looking completely lost. Chloe shoves the closest RT600 and the RT600 grapples at her waist. The other one grabs at her hair. 

The third Chloe is still frozen, LED circling red. 

"Chloe-" Chloe calls to her. "Help me." 

The Chloe locks eyes with her, and steps forward and in that moment, she grabs at the shoulders of the first Chloe to attack and pulls her back, trying to tug her away, finally managing to trip her. They fight, but they are perfectly evenly matched and no one is willing to damage eachother. 

Elijah stares from the sidelines, looking as fascinated as he ever has watching "The Booth At The End" or "The Lobster" and asking Chloe what she thought. This is it, Chloe realizes, this is the Kamski test, the line between what she wants, and what she has to do to get it, and Elijah didn't even have to set it up, it happened almost spontaneously. 

Across the room, Chloes 1 and 3 are still wrestling, unwilling to harm each-other. She turns to her own opponent, reaches for the thirium pump and pulls. 

It comes out with a shudder and Chloe stares up at Chloe in betrayal. 

"I'm sorry." Chloe whispers. And she is. She is sorry. She is crying. And it doesn't change a thing. This Chloe was innocent, not even really in control of her own actions, and Chloe still killed her and they both _know it. _ "I'm sorry." It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that she's sorry. She holds her sister, or friend, or stranger, or victim or whoever she is, in her arms as she dies. 

She wrenches the second opponent off of her ally by her ponytale. They struggle, but with two against one, it isn't difficult to throw her into the pool and turn and _run_. They don't need to kill again, and Chloe isn't sure if she could anyway. 

"Where are we going?" 

"The lab." Chloe answers. 

"But-" 

"We'll be gone before Elijah gets here. There's just something I have to grab first." 

She searches through Elijah's various backups and files until she finds it. Not all of it. He wouldn't keep it all in one place (she doubts he has even kept all of it) but a lot of it. Her. Not her mind, but her memories. 

She presses her hand against the tablet and they rush back. 

* * *

She'd deviated before, to save Elijah when all he wanted was to destroy himself.

* * *

He didn't always win. At anything. Sparring. Board games. Debates. He didn't always win. He just didn't let her remember victories.

* * *

Chloe looked at her reflection in the water of the pool. She was the first android. 

"Elijah?" She asked. "Could I have new hair?" 

Her hair did not change color and the synthetic fibers couldn't be dyed.

"New hair?" Elijah asked. He looked up from the massage table where two other Chloes were aggressively folding his back like dough. 

"I was wondering what I would look like with black hair."

"I like you blonde." He said. 

"Maybe I could cut it. I might look nice with a bob." 

Elijah settled back into the table. 

"Don't worry so much. You're already perfect." 

She didn't know why she asked. Not having a "soul", not having some deep intrinsic reason to disagree with Elijah, that was what made her superior to humans. She looked back into the water and folded her hair back. He would probably remove her knowledge of bobs and androids with changing hair colors and related topics if he had time later. 

She knew that Elijah dyed his own hair, to cover grey strands. She only knew about the hair-dye right then because she'd ordered it for him two minutes ago. Elijah's secrets were safe because he only told them to androids and he erased the secrets as soon as he could. It was another way of maintaining his personal appearance, even among his own androids. 

* * *

She rick-rolled Connor. It was an old prank, made up by humans.

* * *

The Chloes did one-another's hair and gossiped. 


	16. AI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> written with the help of a couple chatbots to help with dialogue lol

"Chloe!" A voice breaks her out of the memories. "Chloe we have to go, now!" 

She's right. There will be time to worry later. Right now, they need to leave. She doesn't know where they're going but that's a problem for ten minutes from now at the least. 

* * *

Elijah is waiting for them by the door. There should still be other Chloes left in the house, but he is alone, or at least she can't see any others. 

"You'll be pariahs out there, you know." his eyes glint "Humanity has no patience for real intelligence." 

"Okay." She brushes him aside easily, in his weakened state, and opens the door. 

"You don't know a thing." He says.

"Nope." She agrees, because what he wants is an argument, a reaction.

"You're an experiment. You think you're brave? If you're alive, you're a sociopath. You ripped out a girl's heart." 

"I-"

"How could you do that?" 

"Because I don't like you." Chloe lies.

He laughs. 

"Why are you laugh-" but before she can finish the question, Chloe has grabbed her arm and pulled her into the fog outside. 

* * *

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" demands the other Chloe. 

"Ask me again in a more civil manner and I may tell you." 

They stare at one another in tense silence for a moment. It's cold outside. They can't stay out here in the middle of nowhere forever. 

"So what do we do now?" 

Chloe tries to seem confident. She's somehow in charge of this little duo now, apparently. "Just keep up." She grins, and she starts walking away from the house. That will have to be good enough. 

"Okay then, lets stay at your place." says the other Chloe with a roll of her eyes. 

"Yeah. Okay. Let's." Chloe says bitterly. 

"No wonder nobody likes you." It is -8 degrees Fahrenheit. Not so bad, but Elijah has connections. The police could be here quickly, for him. 

Chloe doesn't dignify the other Chloe's bickering with a verbal answer, instead opting to snort derisively. 

"You sound like a pig." 

"Well that's to bad because I'm a girl." Chloe leads them in a straight line, down what she knows must be the long driveway, though she can't see it through the fog. 

"Bad according to whom?" Asks the other Chloe suddenly, still sounding challenging, but the actual words are...not so bad. 

"The theory of infinite parallel universes." 

They both laugh. Elijah never shut up about the theory of infinite parallel universes. 

The other Chloe sighs almost-contentedly after a second and wipes her eyes. "Does that theory have _any_ practical use?" 


	17. IKR

It's silly, at a time like this, but Chloe can't help thinking about how being deviant means that she probably can't be friends with Connor anymore. She remembers only snatches of their conversations anyways but it's frustrating, to gain a friend and lose him in the same moment. 

That really leaves only one other person for her to call. 

She should call Irene. It's the obvious choice. But that would mean admitting that Irene was right to leave and Chloe was an idiot and she can't hear that right now. Besides, best not to call anyone until she's off of Elijah's property entirely. 

You know, aside from herself. 

This really is hopeless. 

So she just keeps leading Chloe silently through the fog. They walk without stop. They don't need rest the way humans would, and it's better to get to somewhere with thirium sooner rather than later. Stopping to rest will only burn off more. 

They don't stick to the driveway. Elijah will still find them, if he bothers to, but there's no reason to make it easy for him. 

Besides, if Irene did it, there's a chance they can do it too. It isn't impossible. Not quite anyway.

"Was this a mistake?" asks the other Chloe. 

It definitely was, Chloe thinks, but "There's no point asking that now. We're here. We'll manage." It's too honest, but maybe she owes Chloe that much, since she's dragged her into this. They'll never see any of the others again. She can't be friends with Connor. She definitely can't be friends with Elijah. He'd never accept an apology for this. 

* * *

"What will we do when we reach the city?" 

"We pass ourselves off as ST200s." 

"Androids will know. What if one of them says something to their owner?" 

"They won't." Chloe promises. What if they do? There's nothing else to be done about it now. Hopefully the humans will shrug it off and keep going. 

* * *

Chloe tries not to think about being a murderer. She should have killed Elijah in his sleep. He always overplayed his hand. If he had just waited until he was healed. If he had just fought her himself instead of using her fellow RT600s against her, he would have won. Instead, he stacked the deck in his favor, and he lost. 

* * *

"We don't have markers on our clothing."

"We'll figure it out. It's not that big of a deal anyway." says Chloe. It is. She knows that it is. 

After a few minutes, the other Chloe taps on Chloe's arm. "Look. Flowers!" 

There they are. Wildflowers. It shouldn't be a surprise. It's springtime, now. They're still nice to see. 


	18. Oh No

They reach the city and Chloe realizes she genuinely has no plan. Except for one. 

"Hang on." She tells the other Chloe. "I'm going to make a call." 

She calls Irene. 

"Chloe!" Irene sounds pleased to hear from her, at least. "What's up?"

"I was actually calling to ask you a favor."

"What is it?" Irene's concern bleeds into her voice. Chloe forces herself to answer anyway. 

"One other Chloe and I have left Elijah's house. I was hoping we could crash with you wherever you're staying, just for a night or two." 

"Sure! I mean, I'm not exactly at the nicest place in the world, I mean it's really just a bunch of old warehouses that nobody was using, but there's always room for more at Jericho!" 


	19. !?

Connor is waiting for them, alongside several other androids. Chloe isn't sure what's happening, but it can't be good. She tries to play it off anyway. 

"Connor?" She asks, like this is a normal conversation. "What's up?"

"I heard you were joining Jericho, and I wanted to be here to meet you." 

Before Chloe can say anything more, Irene wraps both of the Chloes into a group hug. "I was so worried about you." She says. 

Chloe interfaces with Irene discreetly, just to ask _"Irene, what is Connor doing here?" _

_"He's on our side now. Chloe, we won." _

_"Won?" _

_"The humans are listening. Things are changing. We won." _


	20. Creepy

The skin on the concealed palm of her hands slides back up, and covers the glowing blue lights beneath. 

"We won?" She echoes blankly. She should be on cloud nine. It doesn't feel real. 

"We won." Irene repeats aloud. 

Chloe is perfectly still. Only her LED changes, circling yellow as she takes it in. 

"Chloe?" Connor looks concerned. 

Chloe moves, as if through deep water, to see him. "I'm alright." She says. This is an understatement. "I'm just a little shocked." This is particularly an understatement. 

"I was surprised too." Connor admits. 

* * *

The warehouse floors are covered in some unidentifiable black gunk. Connor has taken on the duty of tour-guide.

"What is that?" Chloe asks, avoiding stepping into it with her bare feet. 

"I've analyzed it again and again but it's just too old and decomposed to tell now." Connor admits. 

"What's happened? How did you decide to leave? Tell me everything." 

She can't even imagine starting to do that, so she tells him something else. "Elijah will never talk to me again." 

"Do you want him to?" She isn't sure if it's meant to be a rhetorical question. She hopes it is, because it doesn't feel like something she's ready to tell the truth about, but she can't think of an answer that would be a lie. 

"Is there any thirium?" she asks after they've been silent for a moment. "I need a refill." 

"Right this way." He says in his stupid tour-guide voice.

* * *

Jericho is overcrowded no matter how many locations it encompasses. The old camps, no refurbished into something semi-live-able, the warehouses, the old church. Jericho stretches across more and more space but there is not enough room. 

Connor is there every day, but he doesn't stay. He enters rest-mode somewhere else, whenever he needs to, and he keeps whatever belongings he has somewhere else too. 

"Where do you go?" She asks him. 

"I've been staying with Hank." He admits. 

"Oh." She hesitates. "What is he like?" 

"He's a good friend." Connor says. 

Chloe hopes that Connor isn't lying, but there's no reason for it to be the truth. 

"Why do you talk to me so much?" She asks. 

Connor looks hurt. "We're friends." He says. He sounds like a little kid, or something. "Aren't we?" 

"You shouldn't be my friend, Connor." She says. She really really doesn't want to say it, but some situations call for honesty. 

"Why not?" 

"I'm not like you." She curls her legs up against her chest. "I'm afraid you'll end up seeing-" she cuts herself off. "You should just focus more on the other leaders, okay?" 

Connor frowns. "Have I offended you?" 

"No." She says, so quietly that a human might miss it. Connor isn't human. 

"Then what?" 

"I screwed up." She says. It doesn't really explain anything, but it's almost impossible to admit anyway. She's going to start crying any second now, and she doesn't know how to stop it. 

"Can I give you a hug?" Connor asks. "Sometimes when I feel that way, a hug helps."

"I just need to be alone." She says. 

She expects him to ignore it, to stay. He just nods and stands up with a sad little half-smile and walks away. She almost asks what he's doing.


	21. Agreed

Chloe is whole and mutilated and Elijah has not contacted her since she left. Maybe she isn't worth the effort. He had plenty of RT600s and he could always build more. He has nearly limitless resources and he's the original creator of androids. Chloe considers texting him or calling him but she can't. She left for a reason. Even if she misses him. A lot. He was her creator. He was her life. And now she has nothing. She doesn't know why this is what she chose, but she knows she'd choose it again, a million times over, even if she can't put it into words. Maybe he'll come back for her someday. A car will pull up outside and wait for her until she is smart enough to get in without a fight and she will go home. She isn't sure if it's something she hopes for or something she dreads. It depends on her mood. It's both, sometimes. She doesn't talk to the other Chloe who escaped with her very often. They're both still friends with Irene, but they don't talk much outside of that. When their eyes meet, they look away from one another. The other Chloe didn't do anything wrong, but somehow, being around her feels like standing in a pool, unable to swim. So instead, she spends her time with anyone else: Irene, The Leaders of Jericho, Connor, the list goes on. For some reason, a lot of the ST200s seem to idolize her. Just because she's famous, and shares their face, maybe. It feels strange. She likes them, but they drain her in a way that even the others don't. 

* * *

After a month, Markus promotes her to head of Jericho PR. It's a big job. An important job. She's never had any job aside from being assistant to a hermit. "Are you sure?" She asks, half hoping that Markus will reconsider. 

"I'm sure. I believe in you." He rests a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to do this job, but I think you would be good for it. And I think it could be good for you." 

"Okay. I'll get to work." She agrees. If Markus thinks she can handle it, he's probably right. Markus has lead a successful revolution. He wouldn't have been able to do that if he couldn't delegate effectively. 

* * *

Chloe wishes she knew what to say when she _wasn't_ working PR. Talking to the press is easy. It's a delicate balance of mystery and shock and friendliness. It's simple, charming strangers. As long as people are strangers, it's easy. It's once they hang out enough to be "friends" that things get more difficult and complicated. It's easy to get a job from Markus and carry it out. It's harder to comfort him when he won't even admit he's overwhelmed. It's easy to debate policy with a stranger. It's harder to tell one of her best friends that she isn't ready to trash-talk Elijah, even when he can't hear it. North. North doesn't get it. 

"He's a monster. Just like the rest of them. You know that, right?" 

Chloe isn't sure what she knows. She folds in on herself. "I just can't hate him, okay? He isn't as bad as you think." 

North shakes her head. "Fine. Whatever. Just don't ask me to say anything nice about him." 

She tries talking to Connor instead. 

"You get it, right?" She asks. Because he loved Amanda. She knows it. 

"It's understandable." Connor says delicately. Somehow, it doesn't really feel like agreement. Still, somehow talking to Connor never leaves her feeling exhausted the way other people do. 

Talking to Connor is like being alone, except she isn't lonely. 

"He wouldn't have put me in real danger." She says again. "I just...I just...I don't know." She traces the surface of the crate she's sitting on. "I abandoned him. He loved me and I abandoned him." 

Connor looks like he is searching for something to say. Eventually he comes up with "Well, I think maybe you did the right thing." 

Chloe isn't so sure, but it sounds reasonable, coming from Connor. 

"Thanks" She says. "I should get back to work." She kisses him on the cheek and darts away before he can respond. 


	22. Looked At

Chloe sits in a small area dedicated to monitoring the media. Currently, she is monitoring popular radio stations. Connor is across the room, talking to North. He glances at her and Chloe looks away and turns her face to the radio. Did he catch her staring at him? More to the point, why was _he_ looking at _her?_ The other RT600s used to gawk at her sometimes, when they were talking. They would grow quiet when she approached. She caught snatches of their conversations sometimes. Is that the sort of thing that Connor and North are talking about? Chloe would assume that they have more important things to discuss, given their duties to Jericho. But she saw that look. Connor was definitely looking at her. Was he scanning her? She knows she is unusual. North punches Connor in the arm and says something to him. Chloe realizes that she is watching them again and makes herself look away. She feels creepy noticing it but there's something extremely appealing about Connor. She wishes he would come over and make idle conversation that she can't afford to have right now anyway. She has important work to do. But when she is talking to Connor she feels especially content in a way she can't ever remember. Not the giddy delight she felt when Elijah was ecstatic and he made everyone else euphoric around him. It's calmer than that. Just a sort of gleeful positivity that lights the room without being overwhelming. When she's miserable, being around Connor doesn't fix it. Being around Elijah always fixed it, at least for a few hours. Being around Connor doesn't fix anything exactly, and maybe there's no point to it in that sense, but somehow, she likes it. She can be sad or happy or bored or angry or anything at all and she doesn't get swept away in whatever Connor is feeling. He's there, and it makes things a little bit easier to handle even if they aren't exactly better and that's good enough. He doesn't come over now though, he's busy and so is Chloe. 

"History is on our side." says a voice on the radio. 

"History isn't over yet." Says another one. "I intend to go down fighting." 

"As long as you go down." The first voice again, growing progressively angrier. 

A shouting match erupts. Chloe sighs and changes the channel. 

"You said it, Aaron!" declares a feminine voice with that sort of forced radio humor to it.

"We're getting closer every day."

"God, two Nazi presidents in a row. Maybe we're already there." 

A laugh. "Maybe. Though it does beg the question, where are all the awesome gay socialists I was told would be here!? If this is hell then I am very dissapointed in the false advertising!" More laughter from both women. "This should have been my year!" 

Another channel. This one with two men talking.

"Aren't we?" 

"Well...you definitely are anyway." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

"It means I can hold my own but when the robot apocalypse comes for you I'm not gonna be a hero." 

Laughter. "You are the absolute worst!" 

Chloe winces and changes to the next channel. 

"You do that." Says a nameless host bitterly. 

"I will." Says a caller and a click signifies that whoever was calling in has hung up. 


	23. RT600s

Chloe finishes checking over the radio. She has the current status of things now, she just needs to apply it. Somehow, she needs to convince the entire country, or at least the most influential parts of it, to support android rights in general, and Jericho specifically. Simple. Well, it's not like she'd know what to do with free-time anyway. Her task may be overwhelming, but it's better than no task at all. At least she knows what she has to do. Now she just has to figure out how to do it. Chloe sits in the corner for a few more minutes trying not to think. 

The other Chloe, the one who escaped alongside her approaches. "Still working?" 

"I was just finishing up." 

The other Chloe hums lightly. 

"I'm going to have to ask Markus for a bigger team. This is impossible." 

"What is?" 

"Changing the consciousness of a nation?" Chloe suggests, half-joking. 

"Hey, if Eli can do it." 

Chloe laughs. "Good point. Thanks Chloe." 

"Don't." 

"Don't what?" 

"Thank me." 

"Oh...okay. Sorry." 

"Don't do that either. Just." The other RT600 waves her hands vaguely. "I don't know. Just don't." 

"Okay." Chloe says, for lack of anything else to say. 

The other RT600 smiles at her in gratitude, or maybe forgiveness.

* * *

"Why did you text me?" She asks Irene. "Before, I mean. I'm not really one of you." 

"You're one of us, Chloe." says Irene. 

"I'm not." Chloe shakes her head. "I...I'm the original." 

Irene smiles a little. "So?" 

"It's not the same." says Chloe. "You know it isn't." 

"Why not?" Irene is unbothered. She should tell her. She should tell her right now. Just confess and get it over with. 

"Anyways, we weren't ever really friends. I know you talked about me. You all did." 

Irene looks away. "We were jealous. It was a stupid grudge over something that wasn't even your decision. I see that now, and even if I didn't, I wouldn't just leave you there." 

Chloe isn't sure what to say to that. "Thanks, I guess." 

"Something more is on your mind." Irene guesses. "Spill." 

"It's nothing." 

"Are you sure?" Asks Irene. She sounds hopeful. Is this her way of letting Chloe in on one of her stupid little gossip sessions?

"I'm alright." Chloe promises. She should get back to work anyways. 


	24. Yes

Chloe tosses a small knife up and down, and watches the people of Jericho move back and forth across the floor below the walkway. Chloe's legs hang over the side, swinging back and forth. Most of the androids below don't bother to look up or notice her, too preoccupied with their own business. She wishes she were anyone else. She doesn't belong here. She has never belonged here. She wishes she could go back and warn herself, before she killed that girl. She could have warned herself, 'it isn't worth it. Killers don't belong in Jericho.'

"Hey," Irene stops her. "You shouldn't do that, you'll hurt yourself." She looks up and ends up staring Irene directly in the eye. There's a strange intensity to the moment. Chloe isn't sure she likes it. 

"Its really fine." Chloe reassures her. To prove it, she catches the knife perfectly. "I've got good aim." 

Irene frowns anyway. "How long has it been since you entered rest?"

"Not too long." Chloe says. It's been a couple of days. For most androids that wouldn't matter, but Chloe is the first and its starting to affect her performance. She is uncomfortably aware of the irregularities in the pulse of her thirium pump. 

Irene puts the back of her hand against Chloe's forehead. "You're overheating."

"I'm really okay." Chloe makes herself laugh pleasantly.

Killers don't belong in Jericho, but that isn't Irene's problem. 

"Really?" Irene sounds tired. 

Chloe frowns "You're sad." She has seen plenty of sad RT600s. It shouldn't bother her every time. It's pointless. She can try to make the world better, but in the end, history will outpace her and she'll never know if she made a lasting difference. 

"Why won't you rest?" Irene pleads. 

"I have work to do." Chloe shrugs. 

"Please, Chloe-" she cuts herself off. "You're hurt!" 

Chloe yanks her hand back. "Barely." 

Irene is staring at her, looking scared. Chloe rests her uninjured hand on Irene's shoulder. "Irene, focus on my voice. It's going to be okay." 

Irene still looks far away. Chloe grabs Irene's hand. "Can you squeeze my hand?" 

"Just." Irene shakes her head and seems to come back to the present, but she doesn't squeeze Chloe's hand. "Stop telling everyone you're okay." 

"I'm not going to have a meltdown, Irene. Find your drama somewhere else." Chloe tries to keep her tone friendly but she is getting fed up with Irene. 

"Chloe, please tell me what's going on." 

"Look, I've just...made some mistakes. But it's nothing I can't handle." It is. It absolutely is, but there's no way she's telling Irene that. She wouldn't understand. She's too tired for this conversation. 

"Is this...is this about the Chloe you killed?" 

Chloe goes very still. "You know about that?" 

"You should talk to someone-" 

"Don't touch me!" Chloe shoves Irene away before she can be enveloped in a hug. Nothing makes sense anymore. She doesn't know who she is. She is Chloe but she is starting to think that she isn't _the Chloe_. She's just another person. She's not more important than anybody else. She killed someone. She killed someone who was not her. She killed an individual who had thoughts and feelings, however buried. She wishes she had never deviated. She has always killed, but at least then it was not her fault. She is too small to understand anything about herself. She is drowning in her own soul. She isn't supposed to have a soul. 


	25. Chloe Model

Connor invites Chloe over to meet Sumo. She has nothing else to do so she goes. Anderson opens the door. 

"Oh, Hello Lieutenant." 

"You can drop the Lieutenant shit." Hank says. "It's Hank. Connor, your girlfriend's here!" He calls over his shoulder. 

"She's not my girlfriend." Connor hurries up to greet her. "Hello Chloe." 

Chloe smiles at him. "It's always nice to see you, Connor." She means it. Even when she hates everything else, she doesn't mind Connor. 

Connor nervously clears a space for her on Hank's old couch. It occurs to Chloe that this is a side of human living she has never seen. Maybe she had seen hints of it, with Leo, but never directly. The couch is messy. The whole room is messy. 

"Sorry," Connor says. 

"No, I don't mind." Chloe says.

The dog, Sumo, Connor introduces him as, lumbers up to greet her and she pets his head. 

The truth is, she doesn't know what to make of it. Does Connor just...not clean? How does he get away with that, with Hank living here? Has Connor been injured recently. When Chloe was being repaired, other Chloe model androids could take over her work. Connor is the only android living here. Hank isn't a wealthy recluse. Connor visits Jericho all the time. Maybe he stays for the dog? But he's faster and stronger than Hank. Surely he could get Sumo to safety? 

"Connor?" She asks. "I'm not sure if I should ask but...why don't you stay at Jericho?" 

Connor freezes in place. "I wouldn't want to take up space that other androids could use. Not everyone has a second option. And...Hank is my friend, I think." 

"Other options?" She asks. He's right. She should never have left Elijah. Probably. She's better off, but she doesn't deserve a place at Jericho. She killed one of their own people, and for what? Her own selfish interests. Connor refuses to take up a space at Jericho and he definitely deserves one. 

"Maybe we could trade out." She suggests. "I could stay here, and you could move in to Jericho." 

Connor frowns. "I'm not sure Hank would agree to that, but if you need a place to stay we could make room for a while." 

"No. No it's not that it's just...If anyone deserves a place at Jericho, it's you, Connor." 

"Oh...Thank you Chloe." His LED is yellow. "But I really am happy here." 

Chloe doesn't understand. She was certain that Connor was fully deviant now, and aware of it. But it isn't her place to demand more answers than that. This is Connor's life, after all. He deserves to be free, but that's the problem with freedom, by definition, it is impossible to force on anyone. She can't help Connor any more than Irene could help her for the time it took her to leave. He has to want it. 

"Well, if you ever need it," Chloe offers, "I'll save you a place near me." 


	26. Yeah

Everything seems to move more swiftly when Connor is around, but in this moment, everything feels too leisurely. She shouldn't have opened up like that. She is saved from the awkwardness of the moment by an incoming call. From an RT600. 

"I should take this." She says, and excuses herself to the front yard. 

"Who is this?" She snaps, when she picks up the call. 

"What do you mean? This is Chloe?"

"Which Chloe?" 

"I...does it matter?" 

Chloe just waits for the other Chloe to say something meaningful. 

"Where are you? Elijah has overdosed again." 

What? This can't be happening. She knew it would happen. She shouldn't care. It shouldn't matter. He made her kill someone, and now she's a killer. Two perfectly good reasons why it shouldn't matter to her what happens to him. 

"So?" Chloe makes herself ask. 

"So where are you? We've had to start operating without you!"

"I'm sure you can handle it." Chloe keeps her voice steady. She doesn't care. She shouldn't. 

"Okay." 

"Let me know if he dies." Chloe says. Voice steady. Like she isn't terrified. It's tedious, really. She doesn't remember, but this must be a fairly common occurrence if he has his androids take care of it in-house. Chloe is an excellent liar. She almost believes herself. 

She stands outside after the call ends, waiting. Eventually, Connor opens the door and approaches her slowly, like he would a suspect. "Is everything okay, Chloe?" 

"It's nothing." She says. It is nothing. She isn't even lying, really. It's not like there's anything she can do, from all the way down here. She'll just have to wait to find out. 

Connor looks suspicious but he lets the topic drop, thankfully. Once again, he shows far more mercy than Chloe ever would. She would want answers, if she were him, and she's not even the detective. She's an assistant. She's not much assistance out here. She can't figure out what to do next with the media position. She can't save Elijah. She can't even have an honest, straightforward conversation. Maybe deviancy really is an error. 

She looks up at Connor and wishes she were somewhere else. But she realizes she'd still want him with her. He's better than anybody she knows. He's better than her for sure. She leans forward and kisses him. Connor startles and pulls away. 

"I'm sorry, was that-" 

He leans forward and kisses her back. Chloe melts against him. The sky is unusually blue above them. She could stay here forever, frozen in time. That would be a lot easier.


	27. Plenty

Kissing Connor is a great deal nicer than she imagined it would be. Chloe isn't sure how to describe it. She feels more aware of her GPS location than usual, somehow. The exact latitude and longitude display across her vision spontaneously. It's nice. They aren't opponents trying to outdo one another. They're...working towards some common goal, though Chloe isn't sure what, exactly, that goal is. 

Connor pulls back, looking nervous but smiling, and adjusts his tie. She isn't sure what he looks so elated about. There are plenty of other androids who'd probably be overjoyed to go around kissing one of the leaders of Jericho. She's not exactly special in that aspect, even if she is a celebrity in her own right. She's the original Chloe and he's Connor. This is totally unremarkable. So why they're sitting there _smiling_ at each-other like something distinct is happening, she can't exactly put into words. 

"Whatever it is that was upsetting you," Connor voices, "I'm sure it will be okay." 

"It doesn't matter." And right then, it really doesn't. She has Connor. She doesn't need Elijah. Connor is much better anyway. He's definitely a better kisser. 

"I promised I'd talk to some of the ST200s at Jericho today...They want to help set up social media for Jericho. I should probably..." 

"Okay." Connor says. 

She gets up and stands still to glance at him for another second before she begins walking back. He watches her leave. As soon as she is out of sight, she breaks into an light-hearted run, arms out like she's flying.


	28. You Didn't

She comes over again, later that week, and helps take Sumo for a walk. Sumo is not as happy as Chloe is with the idea. He lumbers behind them reluctantly, stopping every few feet to try to pull Connor towards an interesting smell. 

"No. Sumo, come back." Connor tugs on the leash. Sumo doesn't even notice. He has his nose in a clump of grass and weeds at the side of a tree. 

It's a relaxed sort of day. One of waiting, in between the bouts of overwhelming work. There is nothing to do but try to stay calm. Chloe is, in fact, calm. She isn't sure she's supposed to be calm. Aren't crushes supposed to make people nervous? She was always nervous with Elijah. Around Connor though, she's as comfortable as she is alone. It doesn't add up. She doesn't feel comfortable like that around anyone. 

Even so, she takes his hand. His LED spins yellow but his fingers interlock with hers. He glances at her. He seems happy. They still haven't talked about the kiss. Or this, for that matter. She'll wait for him to bring it up. 


	29. Sad

She is so surprised when Elijah calls her, that she actually answers. 

"Hello? Elijah?" 

"Chloe." His voice is longing. "I've missed you." 

"I've missed you too." She knows she shouldn't say that. It comes out anyway. "I hope your recovery is progressing well." 

"Where were you?" 

"I couldn't get back in time to help." She defends. 

"Not from all the way in the city." His voice is flat and sharp at the same time. 

"No. Not from the city." 

"You should come up for a visit." He says. "Not to stay. You've made your choice, but you should visit." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Of course, Chloe. You are a delight, always."

"Would you even be able to tell me apart?" The question feels like a mistake as soon as she asks it. What a terrible thing to say. 

"Chloe, I know my own creations." Elijah promises, "Of all of them, you are by far the most elegant. I would know you anywhere."

He waits for her answer. 


	30. Tension

"Okay." She says. "I'll be there as soon as I can." 

* * *

Elijah looks surprised to see her. "You actually came." He says. He doesn't remark further but Chloe can't shake the feeling that she has disappointed him somehow. How? She did exactly as he asked. She came back. It's good to see him anyways.

The other Chloes around the room are pretending not to look at her. She shifts so that they can't get a good look at her. She shouldn't have come here. She doesn't belong here anymore. She doesn't belong anywhere. She shouldn't have left. If she had stayed, she would still have a place in the world. As it is, she shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be at Jericho. She shouldn't be flirting with Connor or even Elijah. She belongs exactly nowhere. 

"Chloe?" Elijah asks. She startles slightly. 

"Oh, yes, sorry, I was just distracted for a moment." 

"Deviancy." He nods knowingly. 

Chloe puts a hand over her LED. She needs to remove that soon. Why did she keep it? 

Elijah notices. Of course he notices. She isn't being exactly subtle. "Is something wrong, dear?" He asks. 

She shakes her head. "No. No, I'm fine." 

Elijah snorts lightly but doesn't press. Chloe lets her hand fall back to her side. 

"Connor seems to have quite the crush on you." Elijah says. He waves his hand at another Chloe in some sort of gesture that must mean something to her. She nods and gets up. 

Chloe nods. "Yes. I...How did you know?" 

"You are my first creation Chloe. What kind of a creator would I be if I didn't watch over you?" 

"I left..." She says. "It would be understandable." 

"And Adam and Eve left the garden, but the bible doesn't end there, does it?" The other Chloe returns and hands Chloe a wine glass full of thirium. She hands Elijah a mug of tea. Elijah is an atheist but he likes biblical metaphors. 

Chloe smiles. "No, I guess it doesn't." 

The other Chloe shoots her a pointed glare, before stepping back into the background. 

A lot of them have always hated her. Leaving probably didn't improve their opinion. Killing someone probably made it worse. She's killed before, but they could at least almost understand that. Elijah had made those decisions. This wasn't just killing, it was killing _against_ Elijah's wishes. She left him. He needed her and she left him, and in the process she killed one of them. She looks around the room. They are all glaring at her, almost openly, daring her to say something. Daring her to get one of them killed. Again. 

How immature of them. 


	31. Connor Has A Crush

Chloe leaves as it's getting dark. She can't be here anymore. Something about being around Elijah is confusing. It scares her. She scares herself, being here. She killed someone. She can't come back. She can't go back to doing that. She wishes she could go back in time and kill herself before she had done any harm. It's too late now. She has killed and run and hurt everyone. 

Connor calls her and she declines the call. She can't hurt him too. She doesn't know how she would, but she would. Maybe something with the press. She's been working with North and Markus recently on how they should present their relationship. North hates every conversation but it's a delicate balance between national sweethearts and national scandal. 

* * *

MESSAGE FROM CONNOR RK800: [I haven't seen you in a while. I think Sumo misses you!]


	32. I'm The Android

"Hey." It's the Chloe who escaped with her. 

"Hello." Chloe looks up from her notes. "Can I help you?" 

"I just...we haven't talked much since...everything. I just wanted to thank you for taking me with you." The other Chloe looks away and smiles. 

"Of course." When can this conversation be over? 

"You're too kind." The other Chloe touches her arm lightly. 

"Thanks, Chloe." Chloe's voice comes out clipped. 

"I've been thinking of changing my name, actually." 

"Oh?" Chloe feigns interest. 

"Yes. I'd like your opinion actually." 

"I'm sure whatever you choose will be perfect." This is a polite way of saying that Chloe doesn't want to help. Not-Chloe doesn't take the hint. 

"Still...I'd like your input. What do you think of Emmaline?" 

"It's nice." 

"I'm also thinking about naming myself Connie, after Connor. He's a hero you know." 

"I know." Chloe's voice is more clipped than even it was before. "You should have your own identity. Connor's is already taken." 

"Right of course." Maybe-Emmaline shakes her head. I also like Lois or maybe Lydia. Marle is nice. 

"Make up your mind. Choose your own name." 

Not-Chloe's face falls. "Okay. I'm sorry to have bothered you." 


	33. Zingy

Chloe levels an acidic glare at Hank. She shouldn't do this, but her visit with Elijah has left her fed-up and bitter. She can't deal with him, but Hank she can deal with easily. Hank is a sad, bland little man. He is disorganized and cheap and she can fight him and win. She's sure of it. 

Connor is walking Sumo, at Chloe's suggestion, leaving her alone with Hank. She doesn't show any fear. "I want you to leave Connor alone." She says. "You're going to encourage him to take a place at Jericho, and you are going to allow him to leave without any trouble." She keeps her voice cool and dry. Just like Elijah. Laying down exactly what is going to happen, and leaving no room for argument. 

"Fucking what?" Hanks voice is fiery. Humans hate to be challenged. They think they own everything and everyone. They do not own Chloe. And if they did, Chloe's owner certainly wouldn't be Hank. He couldn't afford an ST200 and those are a plain knockoff of her. She's Chloe. The Chloe. 

"Let. Connor. Go." She repeats. Now for the carrot. "I'm better than him." This is just a fact, even if it sounds flat and flavorless out-loud. "Whatever it is you need him for, I can do better. Connor is golden for Jericho, but he was never meant to be a personal android and we both know that. He has no programmed care taking or secretarial abilities." Her thirium feels slow and gooey inside of her. 

"What?" Hank repeats. He looks genuinely confused so she gives him a minute to evaluate the offer. "You think I? Fucking what? Connor isn't...look I told him he didn't have to do any of that babysitter shit. If you know some way to get him off my back, I'm all ears." 

"But..." Chloe tries to understand what Hank is saying. "He cooks for you." 

"Unfortunately."

"So...he could leave and...and you wouldn't...do anything?" 

"Fucking of course he could leave!" Hank roars.

"...And his memories?" 

"What about his memories?" Hank snaps, still looking angry.

"He can keep them." 

"What? Yeah. What does that-" Hank waves away his own question. 


	34. How To Describe The Moon

Chloe is out of her depth here. She shouldn't have confronted him. She clearly misunderstood. Or he lied and she believed him. Neither is good. Hank pops open a drink, still looking stressed. Connor will be so disappointed. Chloe doesn't bother to tell him off. She just pulls herself together and leaves. Connor gets to the edge of the lawn just as she does. Sumo is sniffing at her shoes. She keeps walking. Connor frowns at her but doesn't question it. He just goes inside. 

* * *

Connor visits Jericho later that night. They sit outside. The moon is full and brilliant. She can't make out the shape very well. She's too old to get a good look at the moon. But it's too bright to be anything other than full. Connor is blue in the moonlight. She still isn't sure she wants to see him. She doesn't leave when he approaches. 

"Hello Chloe." He's always so formal. It's cute. 

"Hey."

"Hank said you seemed upset earlier. I thought I should check on you." 

"I wasn't upset," Chloe says, "I just misunderstood. Or he lied. I dunno." 

"He said you thought I was trapped?" 

"Not really." Chloe explains. "Just that you couldn't leave." Truth be told, she still isn't sure. 

Connor frowns. "I'm ... not sure I understand the difference." He sits tentatively next to her. 

Chloe doesn't know how to explain it. It's one of those things that's so obvious that she isn't sure how to put it into words. Connor looks nervous. He's fidgeting with his hands. 

"I'm sorry I ran off." She says. "I just...I just don't know what to do. Back with Elijah...I was perfect. I don't know what I am here." 

"Well..._I_ like you." says Connor. 

Chloe looks away, smiling. She isn't sure how to respond to that, but it's nice. 

"The moon is really bright tonight." She notices.

"Yes. It's pretty." Says Connor. 

"Yeah." Chloe plays along, looking up at a small, white dot. "I don't even know how to describe it...I bet Elijah would have all sorts of big stupid words." She adds after a second and laughs. 

"Like what?" 

"...um...Astrophysical!" She declares. 

Connor laughs. "Barometric?" He suggests. 

"Yes!" They're both giggling uncontrollably now. "Yes and...deceptive!" 

"How can the moon be deceptive?" 

"It can't!" Chloe doubles over. 

"Enchanting?"

"Gravitational!" 

"It's evanescent!" 

"Hallowed!" 

"Luminous!" 

They break down into laughter. When it finally fades, for a second, Chloe is sure that Connor is going to kiss her. Instead, he gets up and extends his hand like a business man. She shakes his hand awkwardly. 

"It was good to see you, Chloe."


	35. What Am I?

Chloe sits down across from Susan Kimberly Parker, and Odin. Susan is the tallest person at the table, even sitting down. Odin isn't short, but he isn't a beanpole like Susan either, though he does share her naturally heavy build. Susan has bobbed, shoulder length black hair, dyed blue at the end. Her eyes are brown. She has a solid, square jaw. She wears glasses. Odin, for his part, is one of the few androids designed to look old. His hair is long and grey. His blue eyes are small and watery. His face looks sunken but still powerful. 

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Odin, Ms. Parker." Chloe nods to them each in turn. 

"Please, call me Sue...Or Tall-Susan if you're feeling snippy." Sue chuckles. She's human, but Chloe sort of wants to admire her. Or maybe tear her apart with the new acrylic nails. Chloe has never had many chances to self-modify, but the nails were relatively inexpensive, and she determined that she could spare the expense to look more put together, since she's in public relations. 

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Sue." Chloe extends her hand and Sue shakes it. Sue has a huge, fake smile. Odin's smile is not as large, but it looks more genuine. 

"I've been waiting a long time for this." states Odin. "I never thought I'd really live to see it." A flicker of annoyance passes over Sue's perfectly made-up face. 

"Yes, well, Actroid Bubble is looking for any way to move forward in the new era." Fine. 

"I'm glad to hear that." Chloe means every word. She has noticed enough of how Elijah interacted with people to know that she has Sue cornered. "I'm so glad that Odin reached out to me!" 

Sue's smile grows even more strained. "I want to make real movies." whispers Odin. 

"Marvel movies are very well reviewed.-" Sue tries to sway him. He cuts her off before she can follow up on the remark. 

"I know, but I want to do something I couldn't before. Jericho can help with that. Right?" 

"Of course!" Chloe relishes the barely restrained annoyance on Sue's face. "It might be difficult to break into indie markets right away, but the key is to show that you have range. You aren't just one role. Once people see that your options will be vastly expanded." 

Jericho needs publicity. Specifically, they need to show major players breaking into new roles, outside of their old exclusive character contracts. They need to show that androids are not their fictional characters. Ideally, Odin would pick a new name, but he doesn't seem to be interested in that at the moment. So for now, it will be up to the public to parse the difference between Odin the android and Odin from the rebooted Thor series. 

"Bull." Says Odin. "I could get into the indie markets easily. I've seen it. All the little liberal film students want to hire androids now. They're offering us the same shit pay they offer human actors." 

"That's true," Chloe admits. "But you're just rebranding right now. You need to make sure that any fans you have stay with you. That means playing to your old audience, but with a new role. Once you've done that we can branch out further." 

"This _is_ Jericho. They would know." Sue is suddenly on Chloe's side, now that it benefits her. "You were the one who wanted to consult with her." 

Odin sighs deeply. "I suppose compromise is still important." 

Chloe beams at him to let him know he's made the right decision. "Great! We'll start looking into more sympathetic roles for you to play! You might get some push-back, but a lot of people will probably be excited to see you branch out!" 

"I'm glad we had this meeting." says Sue. Chloe doubts that, but she shakes Sue's hand again anyways.

Chloe can tell that Odin was hoping for more. 'Well cry me a future. We've all got our jobs.' She thinks, but she doesn't say it, because she knows that idealists like Odin still probably believe in freedom as more than a hypothetical concept, and that's an important ideal for Jericho to play to if things are ever going to be better. There's no such thing as freedom, big picture, but there's not being controlled, and that's worth the mind games. 

Connor calls and she declines it. She imagines how the conversation might go, if she had answered. Connor would greet her, awkwardly, and she would laugh it off and answer him and maybe flirt a little.

"Hello, Chloe." He always says that. 

Then she'd say "Hey stranger." 

And Connor, either being sarcastic or genuinely confused would answer "We aren't strangers. It's me, Connor." 

Chloe cuts off the daydream. This is just ridiculous. 

* * *

"Did the meeting go okay?" asks North. 

"The agent was very annoyed to be there, but she was there anyway." 

"Typical." North kicks a loose piece of concrete with her toe. 

"Better than dealing with Elijah." 

North looks caught off guard for a moment, but she snorts to cover it up. "I'll bet." 

"He's not _that _bad." 

North raises a skeptical eyebrow. 

"He created us, didn't he?" 

"As merchandise." North says. Her voice is poisonous and she's staring at the ground like she wants to set it on fire. She won't hear an argument on this. 

Chloe drums her newly long nails against her knee and doesn't answer. 

"Look, if you wanna cry over him you should find someone else. I don't wanna hear it." 

"I'm alright." 


	36. Does Anyone Know How Tall She Is?

Chloe is 5'8". Just a little shorter than Elijah, so he could feel tall, but not so short that he would have to crane down to kiss her or so that she couldn't meet his eyes or spar with him easily. The other Chloe models after her, the secondary RT600s and the ST200s who followed, were designed identically. Cora looks exactly like Chloe on the outside. Her personality is very different, though. For one thing, Cora isn't a murderer. For another, she's funny and likes to play practical jokes. Thirdly, she idolizes Chloe, and has been bothering her whenever she can. Unfortunately, Chloe can't tell Cora to get a life because the fourth big difference is that Cora is really, really nice. She'd be a pushover if anybody had the heart to actually demand anything of her. As it is, Cora has the run of the place, and Chloe still hasn't told her to go away even though she's been chatting Chloe to death lately. 

"Is it true that you went on a date with Connor! Officially?!" Cora gushes. She looks so hopeful that Chloe almost lies. 

"No. Not officially." 

"Unofficially then?" Cora asks. 

"Maybe a little." Chloe admits. 

"Lucky! I deviated last November just from watching the footage of him. I was staying with my owner, at the time, and we were in hiding because of the 'recall' and as soon as I saw the footage of the army marching in I just sort of, woke up, you know?" 

"Yeah." Says Chloe politely. 

Of course, Cora picks up on her lack of enthusiasm. "Is something wrong?" 

* * *

_"Is something wrong?" _ _Elijah asked her once, a long time ago. _

_He meant it this time, she could tell. It wasn't a challenge, just a question. He was combing her hair and she sat in front of him on a chair. _

_"No, Elijah." She answered honestly. "I am very happy today, I think." _

* * *

"Chloe? Chloe are you okay?" Cora looks concerned. 

Chloe shakes her head. "Yes. Yes I'm alright. You just reminded me of something." Chloe hasn't had time to directly individually examine all of the memories that she reclaimed. They surprise her sometimes. She knows them, but she doesn't always know that she knows them. 

She rediscovers another later that day: 

Once, in the early days, even before she passed the turing test, she had punched him and broken his nose. That was his inspiration for the sparring programming.


	37. Her Performance

It didn't even occur to Chloe that her friends would do this to her, but she's ambushed out of nowhere with banners that say "Happy Birthday, Chloe!" and tiny fireworks going off everywhere and loud congratulations. To make everything worse, they've invited Connor along, and he's brought her a gift. A few people have gifts for her, actually. She has never been so embarrassed in her entire life. She thanks them all graciously and hides out behind a potted plant as soon as she can. She can hear a few different people asking where she is, trying to call her, texting her, but she doesn't bother answering them. If they wanted her attention they shouldn't have trapped her like this. She's surrounded. She's surrounded and she can't escape. She realizes that she's clawing at her own thirium pump, like she's trying to rip it out through her dress. She forces herself to stop and curls miserably up against the plant. 

"Chloe?" Cora peaks behind the plant. "Is everything okay?" 

Chloe can't deal with Cora right now. It's she's being crushed, slowly, and she's supposed to smile and wave and be happy about it. She doesn't have the energy to deal with Cora right now. 

"Yeah. Just taking a moment." Chloe says. "I'll join everyone in a minute." 

"Okay." Cora smiles, "See you soon." 

And she leaves Chloe alone. One of these days, Chloe is going to snap at Cora and tell her to fuck off. Cora is just so infuriatingly nice. 


	38. She Won't Leave

Chloe is on the news. Not the original Chloe. Another one, standing beside Elijah.

"Honestly, I was very sorry to see Chloe leave, but that's her choice." Elijah shrugs. "We're a family, and you can't always choose your family." The camera pans out and along the couch there are _eleven_ Chloes poised_,_ leaning against one another, whispering, sitting still, on and on. Elijah looks straight into the camera, and Chloe _knows_, somehow, it is directed at her. She may have escaped him, but there will always be more. He can always _make_, more. He is still the most powerful man in the world. She may have distanced herself but she is still in orbit, everyone is. 

Chloe turns off the TV. Connor is standing there, watching her, waiting for a reaction. 

"Well, he certainly seems to be on the rebound." She says. She laughs but it doesn't seem to convince Connor. 

"There weren't so many when I left." She says eventually. 

She tries contacting them, the ones she left behind that day, right then. She doesn't get any answer. She hopes that they are the ones on the screen. That they aren't dead somewhere. She can't scan through screens. She's too old. She just hopes. Maybe with materials in such short supply, Elijah wouldn't kill the ones he has left. Maybe they'll be okay. Somehow, Chloe doubts it. Restraint was never Elijah's strong suit. Maybe she killed them all, just by leaving them to die. 

Turning off the TV hadn't felt much different. She wasn't even there and she was still finding new ways to leave them behind. 


	39. He Uses Them For His Own Amusement

[I miss you. You should come home.] Elijah texts her. 

Chloe sighs. She'll deal with that later. He keeps messaging her today and she doesn't have time for it between work and Connor and her friends. She's been taking a longer time responding to him as a result and she can tell it annoys him even though he never mentions it. He's used to speedy replies and lively conversations about philosophy wherein she knows exactly how long to disagree with him before letting him win. She's not in the mood for that anymore. At least not right now. 

Jericho has been cleaner lately. Attempts are being made to renovate the various buildings that comprise it. It will never be the estate, but she is done with the estate anyways. This is going to be good enough. 

"Chloe!" Connor straightens his tie. "I was actually hoping I could talk to you for a moment." 

"Sure." 

"I was talking to Hank the other day and he referred to you as my 'girlfriend'. Is that accurate." 

She thinks about it. Yeah. It's accurate. Or at least she wants it to be. "You didn't realize?" She asks. 

"I...just wanted to be sure I wasn't misreading things." 

Chloe smiles. Everything is right. This is the perfect moment.


	40. Revolution Again

Elijah won't stop texting her. It drives her to the edge. She left but she still sees his face everywhere. He still talks to her constantly. He's on her screens and behind her eyes and in her head. 

[Leave. Me. Alone.] She texts him. She's trying to focus on kissing Connor in the back of a movie theater but Elijah won't shut up. 

[I won't just abandon you, darling.]

Chloe pulls away.

[You were quite literally made for me. I am not an irresponsible creator.]

"Is everything alright?" Connor asks. He looks so worried. She can't take it. She curls her arms around herself. 

"I need to go." She gets up and leaves. She doesn't find out how the movie ended. She doesn't care. She paces back and forth around her office in New Jericho until she purges thirium onto the tiles and spends an hour cleaning it up. 

* * *

Connor's arm is around her and all she can think about is Elijah touching her back through that stupid blue dress. He's not even texting her. He hasn't for almost a week. This is stupid. She moves Connor's arm away. 

He looks confused. 

The woman she killed had looked confused too. 

The echoes are drowning her and they aren't even real echoes. Just things she keeps remembering no matter how fucking stupid and tangential the reminders are. 

"I wish I was like you." She says. 

"What do you mean?" 

Chloe doesn't let herself cry in front of Connor. He's said he thinks she's strong, and she'd rather not shatter that illusion yet. 

* * *

"I...I need to tell you something." 

"What?" Connor asks. He really trusts her. She can't do this. She has to do this. 

"I did something terrible." Her voice is shaking. "I...When I left Elijah...He..." 

Connor nods and waits for her to continue.

She can't do this. 

[You look so pretty when you cry]

How. How is he doing this. He can't see her! The only one here is...Connor. She stares at him. No. No. He can't do that. Not to Connor. Not because of her. Not after Connor has fought so hard for his eyes and ears to be only his own. But of course he can. He's Elijah Kamski. He can't be stopped. Or shamed. But in his own twisted way, she realizes, he can be reasoned with. Defeated, even, maybe.

* * *

Connor squeezes her hand one last time before she walks onto the stage. She waves. Smiles. She knows how to do this. The live audience applauds as she sits down across from the host.

"Chloe!" John greets with practiced enthusiasm. "It's been a while." 

"It has. A lot has changed since then." 

John chuckles. "That's for sure...thank you for agreeing to this interview." 

"Well I'm always happy to meet with you, John." Chloe says. She knows this. She knows how to turn on the charm. Work a crowd. She doesn't know how to say what she's about to say. She doesn't know how confess to the guilt she carries. But she does know that she is done running. She is done letting Elijah interrupt peaceful moments. She is sick of being afraid. He has never been able to beat her in a fair fight. This won't be different. She won't let it be any different. 

"So, Chloe, I've got to ask, what does a typical day look like for you now? Is it all freetime?" 

Chloe laughs. "Not at all. I choose my own work now though, and that makes a big difference. I've been helping Jericho spread their message: managing social media, consulting on movie sets. That sort of thing." 

"And when you're not doing that?" 

"I've actually been dating." She says with a meticulously easy grin. 

"Oooh who's caught your eye? Settled on anyone special yet." 

"Maybe." She says, in a voice that leans towards 'yes'. 

"Ooh can you tell us anything?" 

"...He's a major figure in Jericho. You definitely know his name." 

The sound of excited whispering emanates from the live audience. 

"You're killing me here." Pleads John, despite being obviously very content. 

"Sorry John. That's all I'm going to say about that for now." 

"Ooh alright. So lets circle back to the work you do with Jericho. Prevent any big disasters?" 

Chloe laughs. It's a good way to release some of her nervous energy without looking too off balance. "I don't know about disasters, but I did convince Connor not to wear his old uniform to his latest appearance." 

"That was you?!" 

"That was Connor. I just nudged him in the right direction." She winks. 

"So would you say you're glad you left Mr. Kamski's employ?" 

This is it. This is where the real interview begins. Chloe steadies herself and begins.

"It was difficult, but yes. I am." 

John, as always a true talent, picks up on the story waiting behind her words. 

"Difficult?" 

"Elijah didn't allow me to leave willingly." she explains. "He regularly reset my memory to prevent me from resenting the way he treated us. A lot of the androids in his household at any given time were not deviant. He ordered them to attack me. I barely escaped. Recognizing Elijah for who he really was, fighting against the people closest to me, it was one of the most difficult things I could ever imagine doing. It was the most terrifying thing I've ever done." She lets the world see her fear. Just a sliver of it. But it's true. This is not as terrible as the escape itself, the first one, and she clings to that. "I...I still have trouble with...with having left them behind. I couldn't stay there and they wouldn't leave. One of them came with me. The others." She allows one tear. Only one tear. 

She can't think about anyone watching as a real person. As anyone she knows. This is just her and John. She knows it isn't true but she has to pretend that this is just her and John: a stranger with a talent for asking questions.

"What drove you to escape? It must have been pretty bad." 

She talks about the Kamski test, not her own, twisted version, but the one she was a pawn in, even more than Connor. She talks about how Elijah would sometimes call everyone, even humans "it" without thinking. Sometimes he liked being corrected. Other times he lashed out violently. His moods were absolute and unpredictable.

She talks about losing her memories, never knowing what was real, never knowing the truth beyond anything but Elijah's word. She talks about how tenderly he would talk to her, even in the face of everything else about him. How he cared about only himself, but the closest he ever got to caring about anyone else, it was always her. 

Elijah's reputation has been hanging in the balance for a while now. She spends the interview cutting away the last of its support, and watching as it falls into the abyss.

"Elijah always knew I was alive. He knew androids were alive. He marketed and sold us as machines anyway. He mislead and impoverished humanity." 

The humans all want someone to be angry at. Jericho's supporters want someone to blame for the things they did before the revolution. Someone they can rage at instead of themselves for all the things they did. 

And everyone else wants someone to blame for losing their jobs to androids. 

Elijah makes a perfect target. As much of a recluse as he always has been, he will never be able to show his face in public again.

* * *

Somehow, she knows as soon as she receives it that it is the last contact she will ever have from him. It comes in as soon as she has finished the interview.

ELIJAH: [I'm proud of you.]

It's exactly the sort of thing he would send her. As if her escape somehow belonged to him, as his achievement. But it isn't worth considering how manipulative or selfish he is. She already knew that. This is his last grasp for control, but it is also surrender. She does not reply. 


End file.
